Archinect - News

Irving Gill, Homer Laughlin and the Beginnings of Modern Architecture in Los Angeles

2018-04-02T18:26:00-04:00

Gill, for Christ's sake, get your hair cut.-FLW

If you think architecture has a dense web of characters and influences now, read So. Cal's arch historian John Crosse's account of the development of modernism in Los Angeles, going all the way to Adler & Sullivan's prestigious office in the Auditorium Building in Chicago.

Front elevation, George Steckel Residence, Normandie Ave. near 4th St., Los Angeles, 1910. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

"The evolution of modernism in Los Angeles architecture can arguably be traced back to the Auditorium Building offices of Adler & Sullivan in the early 1890s. The Auditorium Building was Adler & Sullivan's crowning achievement and met with rave reviews in the local and national press and trade journals as setting the bar for buildings of its typology upon its 1889-90 completion. The now famous partners and their chief draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright excitedly moved their offices into their masterpiece of engineering and interior design's tower ...

Can late modernism survive the near future?

2017-01-05T18:32:00-05:00

All across Los Angeles, buildings by the city's most important firms face preservation threats. Rejected and outmoded, can late modernism find love?

What is the value of history in a city known for its ephemerality? (Hint: um, not much, unless everyone agrees it is pretty.) In this piece for the L.A. Weekly, Mimi Zeiger thoroughly investigates the state of late modernist structures in the City of Angels, and how likely it is that many of these often repurposed (and unfortunately altered) buildings will survive changing public tastes. While the LAX theme building has been legally protected from demolition, other notable works--like William L. Pereira's original LACMA buildings--haven't met with the same preservationist zeal.

Modernism, in the news:

‘The Princes of Kings Road’: Neutra and Schindler the subject of a new site-specific play

2015-06-10T18:47:00-04:00

Next September, the historic Neutra Institute and Museum in Silverlake will host a new play by Tom Lazarus entitled ‘The Princes of Kings Road.’ Based on a true events, the production imagines a reunion between the two iconic figures of LA modernism, Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra.

The architects have a storied history, which was recounted in a Vanity Fair article from 1999. After building his West Hollywood home (now the MAK Center), Schindler and his partner invited Neutra and his wife to live with them. The house was originally intended as a communal living space for two couples, with open-air "sleeping baskets" rather than bedrooms. But after five years of cohabitation and professional partnership – the two architects collaborated on an entry for the the League of Nations palace in Geneva – their relationship turned sour, transforming into a bitter rivalry.

Lazarus' play imagines Schindler and Neutra reunited in a room at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (now the bright blue Scien...